power influence over the conflict is quite great. i don't see if this time as an exception. if there is an international, regional concert of states, that says that is the direction, i think of that as the only way to get politicians, i am 40 impose peace in the sense that politicians when they come into a settlement, they have got to make concessions that will come into the heart of their national agreement. ..

the heart of their national dreams, so helping them to take the pain of that moment, and deal with the future rather than the past, and dealing with an entity, that's the need for countries like egypt, united states, france, china, to get everybody on board and into this process. i guess it would be very important. >> following up on tom's question, what would be the reason for an attack on iran and do you think it would affect the domestic situation in egypt? >> well, i would start the answer from the end. i think it will have an impact,

the fact that during the iraq war, for instance, when we had the united states attacking iraq, there was a little anger, with the administration. but that would be it. in a sense. however, you know, much more important than internal reaction, it will be the strategic reaction to this, because iran is not a small country. it's an established state, aside from the religious character, or the illusionary character of it. it is a pillar. that's the iranian-persian civilization at present time. and i guess it will be a big earthquake that's very difficult to handle now, and we look at the repercussion of iraq and creating or getting into the

shia-sunni, its amount of violence that happened this iraq and spread to lebanon and other place, iran will be iraq 10 times over, and i guess we have a strong central government, they will have a lot to fight back with. and fighting back, will affect major egyptian strategy interests, in the gulf, in high rack, in saudi arabia, and some of the things that i referred to. we don't know, you know, once you start that game, then all targets are open for shooting, and certainly, egyptian-american relations will be target for shooting as well. >> one aspect you haven't covered, the elephant in the room is the refugees, or more accurately, displaced persons.

without resolution of the displaced person problem, isn't that a show stopper, and if we put it off too much in the distance, then we leave to possible compromise, which in the end may upset all the other previous agreements? there is no one issue of arab-israeli conflict that's easy. you know, and the issue of jerusalem, issue of settlement, issue of refugees are all are very delicate ones. settlements are not only buildings, they are related to religious vision and jerusalem is touching all the religious -- religions, christianity, islam, and judaism. the refugees as well. i'm not going to stand here and tell you i -- i think there are different formulas that was

worked out. however, it will remain, you know -- >> we're going to leave this event from yesterday, to go live now to a health care town hall meeting with former governor, former democratic national committee chair howard dean. this is part of the netroots nation conference that's happening in pittsburgh. live coverage now on c-span2. >> -- so i along with my colleague, egor who is out here somewhere, helped do a little bit of the research and writing. egor is a blogger on health care issues. so if you have any questions about the health care debate that you want to ask and don't know the answers to will help you thought. before entering this project with governor dean, there were a few things i knew about him that many of you probably knew that caused me to respect and admire the man. he had just run an up start presidential complain, in which he declared to be representing the democratic wing of the

democratic party. he had empowered citizen activist to engage in his campaign through new social media tools, particularly blog and citizen meetups. he had inspired activists to storm iowa and brave the freezing cold with blaze orange caps. he had, in 2005, he fought for and won the post of d.n.c. chairman by probably proclaiming -- [applause] >> -- boldly and ambitiously that he wanted a 50-state strategy. well, he didn't get all 50 states, but he got enough of them to take back the house, the senate and the presidency. [applause] >> you know, in one of my favorite moments of his presidential campaign in december 2003, governor dean went before the microphones and said, the capture of saddam hussein has not made america safer. it was an inconvenient truth, he

was mercilessly attacked by the media, the democrats, the republicans, but he toad up for that and time has proven that governor dean was right. flash forward to today, governor dean is still speaking in convenient truths and still getting attacked for them. the other day, lou dobbs called him a blood-sucking leftist who should be stopped by putting stake through his heart. so he must be doing something right. governor dean is filling a critical role in this health care debate. he's been unafraid to call out the health insurance companies for their lies indites portions. he's been unafraid to call out republicans and democrats for putting health insurance companies before the american people. he refused to sacrifice good policy in the name of bipartisanship or compromise. and he refuses to say that we should settle for anything when

there's a good chance we can accomplish something that we can all be proud of. having written this joint project with governor dean, you know, i think both egor and i were struck by the fact that he was not in this for any selfish reasons. he was in this for one reason and that's to make sure we get health reform right. he's working tirelessly every day for that cause and he's putting himself out there, he is taking on the attacks, and he has said over and over again, that in order to get this right, there's one thing we have to do, and that's to make sure that all americans have the choice to enroll in a public health insurance option. [applause] >> i can't tell you how refreshing it was to work with governor dean. he's constantly full of energy, he cares a lot, and he's always up for adult conversations by which i mean he loves open,

honest, and direct debate. but you don't have to take my word for it, because you're going to get your shot here this morning. so we've got a town hall-style question and answer session that is going to be moderated by mike lucks and tonya tarr. we are going to be asking for questions through twitter. you can use the hash tag, dean and end or right it down on pieces of paper and there will be people going around and collecting them. so mike, who is one of the moderators, is -- he worked on the obama transition team as a liaison to the progressive community, he worked in the clinton administration, and he co-founded the wonderful blog, open left. tonya is the director of legislative and political mobilization with the texas american federation of teachers. and she has previously worked for afsme-cio.

so without further ado, i would like to introduce my friend, dr. howard dean. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> do you want to start with some opening remarks. >> sure. i'm really looking forward to this. let me just say a couple things. first of all, the people in this room are going to be the most important people in america over the next 8 to 10 weeks while we get this thing done, because we're seeing extraordinary things being said that are flatout not true, there's

maliciously untrue and the only way to counter those is the netsukes we really need your help. secondly, there's been a lot of talk about health care reform. there's only one piece of real reform in this bill for health care. there's a couple of pieces of insurance reform which are worth doing, but the only piece of health care reform that's worth doing left is the public option. the public option -- [applause] >> people say can't there be a compromise. we have already compromised. the public option is the compromise between the single payer and the private sector. we can't go any further. there's nothing else to do here. if you give away the public option, you have no health insurance reform and we ought not to put the next generation into $60 billion worth of debt every single year. just get rid of the bill, do insurance reform, guaranteed community rating and call it a day. we need the public option. if anyone is serious about real choice for the american people, we need the public option and we're not asking to put our

stamp of approval on what americans have to do. we're asking this. let the american people reform health care. we know the congress won't do it. give the american people the opportunity to reform health care. give them the choice. all we're asking is let them have the choice of a public program or a private program and they will reform the american health care system and you have to make sure that they understand, this is a clear vote. this is not a vote between democrats or republicans or conservatives and liberals. this is a vote, 72% of the american people want the choice and 50% of republicans want the choice. this is a vote for whether you're standing up for the insurance companies or standing up for its american people and we're going to track every single one of those 535 votes. thank you law. [applause] >> so governor dean, i work with the teachers union, and we have members all throughout the country, but in texas, for instance, we have members in

fort bend texas, some of them are teachers aides and they make $17,000 a year. we fought for a pay increase, we got only half of what they needed. they do have health care, but the thing is even with the pay increase, because there's a scheduled increase to their health care benefits, that increase is eaten up right by these rising costs, so my question to you is -- and i know there are a lot of very smart people here that know all the ins and outs of health care policy, but for folks like that who are being squeezed, how do we make the plain english argument? they're hearing a lot of misinformation, but how do we make a very plain clear english argument to them? >> you have to control costs. we need to control costs without rationing, which is a no-brainer, because we waste 70% of the -- we spend 70% more than the next most expensive system, which is canada and germany, to there's plenty -- one of the biggest wastes honestly is the return on equity the private insurance companies get, because there's just a tremendous amount

of money that goes out of the health care system, so how do you control the cost? one, and doctors and hospitals in massachusetts just vote today do this, eliminate fee for service medicine. that's not in the bill. that's not in the bill. but most doctors in this country, most primary care doctors would be glad to do that, because we actually get paid less here, primary care doctors get paid less in the united states of america than in great britain, which is one of the bugaboos of the right wing. there are some fundamental reforms, but you can't get to the reforms, unless you have shall more marketing power, which is why the public option is so important. so if the public option takes hold and folks, whether they're in the teacher's union or private sector wor or working fa small business and choose the private option, if that gets home, there will be ways of controlling costs. kaiser is actually a model for this. it's in the non-profit sector.

they are the insurance company, the tertiary provider and the primary provider and because they're totally integrated, they will make investments in prevention because they know they get the savings at the end. but in order to get that kind reform, you can't continue with the current system that we have based solely on private insurance. it doesn't work. it doesn't work. >> so in plain english, it would be like the current system doesn't work. >> the current system will not control costs ever. medicare does a much better job of controlling cost, one because it's more efficient and two, because they have some price control structures that work for them. now, that's now perfect either. medicare has one of about two points above the rate of inflation over the last 30 years. it's just too much. but the private sector has gone up at 2.5 times the rate of in plagues over the last 30 years, which is making working people really suffer, because their health care costs go up higher than their salaries do and therefore they never get an increase and it's making our

business community suffer. what we're doing now is madness for our business community, because they're paying for a commodity that goes up 2.5 times the rate of inflation and we can't compete on china on labor costs, we can't compete with canada, germany and france because testify government-run systems and the community doesn't have to pay for them. >> dr. dean, i have a question from bobby, at i am really, really, really, really angry.com. are you going to seek appointment to the death panel and will there -- is killing my grandma mandatory or will there be an appeal process? >> i actually am going to give a serious answer to that. you have to understand what's happening in this country. the truth is these meetings are not about health care.

they're not. [applause] the people that you see -- i'm not talking about people who ask questions and disagree. i've been doing book signings and i have plenty of conservatives that come to the book signings and ask questions and tier great. the people horshouting down their congress people are very angry, an they're angry for three reasons. one is the republicans have been running on anger for 40 years, this started with the southern strategy in 1968, anger, you know, against the people who are protesting the vietnam war and so forth. and karl rove used to talk about polling for anger points and finding them and that's why various minority groups, african-americans, immigrants, gay people, hispanics, have been the target of the republican party over the last eight or so elections. because he polls for anger points and then makes people go to polls because they get angry,

so these are the angry people. they're not going to turn their anger offer. secondly, look carefully at who is shouting their congress people down. they don't look anything like the generation that elected barack obama. this election was the first time in my lifetime where more people voted who were under 35 than over 65. that's incredible in politics, which means this is the new generation's president. so this is a group of people who feel incredibly threatened and incredibly angry and of course, the politics of the younger generation is different than the politics of think generation. they're pretty contentious and polarized and it's not and it's important not to stay so polarized for the future of the country. what you see happening is a small group getting smaller and smaller because of the politics and the way they express themselves is less and less attractive than the younger generation who is now in charge of this country and as they get smaller they get angrier and the third thing is that they have a

president who they're not accustomed to -- the kind of president they're not accustomed to seeing in the would you say. and -- in the white house. tough is change in america. i thought about this a lot and my initial reaction was to be mad at all these people who are yelling and screaming. it reminded me a lot of when i signed civil unions, which is the first bill of its kind in the country, and i'll tell you why. you know, i always had a lot of -- i'm actually not as liberal as everybody thinks i am. and i actually had a bill following among sort of moderate people and even republicans and independent business types, not certainly the right wing and people were really angry. i'd go to neighborhoods that i had been popular if before and people would be creaming the f word at me and i had to have police people with me and stuff and it was an extraordinary degree of anger. it wasn't that their marriage

would be in trouble because gay people have equal rights. it was the change. it was the idea that they counted on before, a certain set of things they believed in before they couldn't believe in anymore. that's what's really going on in these meetings and of course our instinct is to say no, that's not really in the bill. i saw arlen specter on television the other fight, somebody said something did the death penalty and he said that's not in the bill and he said yes, yes, it is. in the bill. they don't want to hear what's in the bill or not because this is not about the bill. this is about a major generational change in america, a huge transition. the election of barack obama was an enormous transition. the same kind of transition we had when john f. kennedy was elected in my generation. a new generation taking power in america with a different way of doing things and that is what the real issue is in these meetings. [applause] >> when i asked folks on

facebook and twitter and things like that what questions i should ask you governor dean, i got a lot of response from women bloggers and those who blog about universal health care and reproductive rights. one thing that seemed to come through, is there's some confusion about whether or not women's' access to choice is going to be protected in all these various bills. irrealize we don't know -- i realize we don't know exactly what's in each bill, but tom foley pointed this out and he talked about the language about protecting the access to abortion, planned parenthood mentioned this too, so how do we make sure that women's health care and choice is protected as we move forward in health care reform? >> well, first of all, we're talking about the public option here, because the government doesn't have a right or i don't think this government is going to start talking to health insurance companies about what they can and can't cover. secondly, the way this bill was originally set up, and tears

been many iterations of it, but the way it bill was originally set up is the congress is not going to design the benefit package and it never was. it makes no sense for congress to design the benefit package. the benefit package is going to be designed by a separate panel that will be set up, so the people who have injected this issue into the debate are people who are trying to sidetrack the bill. this was not an issue in the debate, because everybody who was in congress knew that the question of reproductive rights was going to be addressed when the benefit package was designed by an independent panel, presumably appointed by the president or the secretary of h.h.s. more likely. the debate we're now seeing, in my view, ought to be handled not by putting language in to prevent access to reproductive health care, but by letting the panel make that decision. the panel is likely to be a

panel of fairly distinguished health care providers, i would guess, and some people in the other associated industries, what i call the medica medical-industrial complex. i don't think that they are going to break ground, huge new ground in terms of abortion restriction. maybe they will. but i think we're much safer having this issue dealt with in a panel of people who are not politically appointed and politically influenced or influenced by being special interests, than we are of having -- starting to decide which benefits get what, who gets what benefits in the congress of the united states. that's not a debate we need to have in congress. that's a -- that's an actuarial situation and i think it ought to be treated that way. >> when we are working on the health care issue in the early 1990's, in the clinton white house, i remember you were down a lot, you were sort of a point

person for the democratic governors on the issue. what do you think is different about today's debate andry hopeful that we can overcome a lot of the same obstacles that we had then, that are rearing their head. are you hopeful that the politics of it has changed enough that we can get something done? >> i know the politics has changed a lot. it's enormous. we're winning this debate and the reason you know that we're winning the debate is because when folks have to get to the level that they've gotten to now on the other side where they just invent stuff, you know they're desperate. they're absolutely desperate. they're just making things up and they're telling an increasingly smaller group of folks, who are a behaving i would say outside the mainstream usual behavior, what happens when people go to meetings. and again, -- i think actually, i know this is probably not a popular thing to say here, i think the blue dogs have had a very positive influence on the bill, because you need -- you're going to have a bill that's

going to apply to all americans, you need to have somebody representing conservatives and moderates. the republicans basically have refused to engage if any serious discussions about this bill of any kind. somebody has to do it, it might as well be the conservative and moderate wing of the republican party. one thing they have done is what they're doing for small businesses. one of the things the blue dogs have insisted on and i hope this continues as the bill moves through. if you have a small business with a payroll of under half a million dollars, you don't have any requirement to get health insurance for your employees at all. that's basically left up to the government which will supply subsidy based on income and why is that great 70 small business creates 80% of the new jobs. we never do anything for small business in either party, we always talk about it. this would be a huge boost to the small business community, would allow them to compete with bigger businesses and create por jobs. that's a very positive thing. there are a lot of things in this bill that -- there was a few things that blue dogs did i didn't agree with, but mostly that's a positive bill.

we're in good shape in this bill. the press never covers substance, you wouldn't know that from reading the papers, but the fact of the matter is this bill has passed four committees, three in the house and i believe there will be a good bill in the house with a strong public option and one in the senate. dodd has done a nice job, the senate bill is very good. their small business approach is 25 employees or less. i would like to see a million dollar payroll or 50 employer he's on less on the small business side. but i think we're making real progress. i think beer winning this fight. i think after all is said and done, we're going to go back to washington. i actually predict this is going to go past the senate and reck sellation, because i don't think any republicans have any intention as grassley said the other day of supporting this bill under any circumstances. even the ones who would cooperate in a reasonable way are going to get so beat up by their caucus and their base, that they're not going to dare, which is what you saw in des moines the other day, when senator grassley was talking. i think we'll pass the bill, i think it will have a public

option, i think we'll use reconciliation in the senate to do it, but i think it's going to be an ugly process. >> i want to ask a question from the single payer perspective. we have a lot of single payer folks who are here. [applause] >> i had a feeling that would get, you know, and i've gotten a lot of questions on twitter and facebook about why didn't the democrats start with the single payer option and try to move the debate toward the middle, sort of as you were suggesting at the beginning. do you think that was a strategic mistake and do you think there's something now? we've got a question from twitter, how can we move the public debate now, so that it -- the public option is more of the centrist option as opposed to the option on the left? >> i do i it is a mistake. i think it was a hangover from the old democratic party. what happened was i think

people -- people thought initially, both in the house and the senate leadership in the white house, that somehow single payer had become a word like liberal, which the framers on the right managed to define in the american lexicon, as a bad word and so they thought that by saying single payer is off the table, they would have a reasonable debate. er we're not going a debate about health care in this country anymore. we're having a shouting match and the other side is not interested in health care reform. they just know they have to say they are because franklin has told them so, so the debate is done. they're not interested in debate. and the public option is a very reasonable position, but it is the compromise. it is the compromise position, and without it, there's no -- there's no serious reform can take place, as i said before. looking back on it, there are some things, whether you like the single payer or whether you don't, you have to respect the facts. the facts about a single payer, whether you like the single payer or you don't, is it is

more efficient, it only expense about 4% of our money on administration, and the rest is spent on health care, unlike the private non-profit sector which expense 12% or the for-profit which at best expense 20% on overhead and therefore only 80% and some companies of course take out much more than that. so i think with the single payer should have been on the table from the beginning. i don't think we would have had votes for it in congress but we would have had a better, more comprehensive debate if we had a discussion about 676. >> i wonder if judy just wrote that on your facebook page? mike lux has a question, how can we involve more health care professionals in the debate and actually, i got the same question from mara in massachusetts. she asked me the same thing, because she's actually having doctors tell her, once obama gets his way, like this that and

the other is going to fall apart, so the health care progressional themselves, some of them, seem to be against the public option or are afraid of what this is going to do to the health care. >> i'll telling you about the polling on this which is very interesting. first of all, the american medical association, you could have knocked me over with a feather with this, which i've never been a member of, has endorsed henry waxman's bill. that is like ronald reagan and mikhail gorbachev shaking hands. it's incredible. secondly, over the last 15 years, the health insurance industry has treated both patients and doctors so badly that the significant majority of primary care physicians is not through a specialist, but the majority of primary care physicians in america favors single payer, not just the public option but a single payer. so that's a comment on the

horrible bureaucracy and the probable thames their patients are having as well as them. so anecdotally, i'm sure doctors are worried and say things, but as i said before, most doctor's wages, if you're in a primary care are lower than they are for great britain. i think doctors are not dumb and they figured this out. they are better off with a real -- with real health care reform, and so there's some doctors who react just like everybody else in america, change always makes you nervous, but i think most doctors really understand that you do need change and the majority of primary care physicians think you'll have a single payer. >> i want to ask a followup question to that. i was in oregon recently, and did a panel there with some folks that are here today. carla, among others, and there was a great young woman there, who i really enjoyed talking to, who was going to medical school, and she was talking about the incentives were all on going

into specialties. and was worried that for people like herself, who wanted to go into general practice, that the economic incentives weren't there, and that it was going to take a long time to change that. what do you think we ought to be focusing on in terms of health reform that can change that, have you seen things in the different bills that are out there that will take us in the right direction in terms of more primary care physicians. >> interestingly enough, another area where the blue dogs made the bill better in the house. they said you can't use medicare rates and a lot of people reacted negatively to that. medicare rates are one of the things that is making it so impossible to practice primary care. they're too low. in my state, when i was governor, we did guaranteed issued rating and a lot of the insurance companies left, which was great, because they're all the ones you wouldn't want in your state anyway but the ones that stayed are doing a pretty good job and the other thing we

did was raid pediatricians medicaid rate i can't matically. why? we got a waiver from the clinton administration to use medicaid to make health care, middle class entitlement for people up to 18. if you make $66,000, i think it is now, in vermont, everybody under 18 in your family is eligible for health insurance if you pay $480 a year. it's a pretty good deal. so essentially 99% of everybody upped 18 years old in my state is eligible for health insurance. and 96% have it. 3% we can't find to sign up. which actually sometimes happens in european countries as well. so -- but in order to do that, we had to raise pediatricians' reimbursement rates, because they were horribly low under medicaid rates. so theirs thing is to raise reimbursements rates to primary care. secondly, if you want to get

more primary care physicians, then you've got to deal with the debt they incur. the reason they go into specialties, not so much for the money, there are doctors who just go to medical school because they want to make a lot of money, but most of them go because they like patients and like people and want to make the world a better place and if you make it easier for them to go and practice primary care, but not having them have a debt load of $100,000 or $150,000 when they leave, they're more likely to go into primary care. [applause] >> and the 3rd is -- third is we all have to get with the program on primary care. doctors consequence don't always like to hear me say is a qualified, competent, nurse practitioner can do about 65% of this stuff as an internist. so we have to get the medical establishment and the american people used to seeing, a phrase that i hate, called physician extenders, or nurse practitioners, physician assistants.

the most important quality of a great nurse practitioner is not how much medicine he or she knows. it's how well they know what they don't know. in fact, that's the most important quality in a primary care physician is well, is how much up know about what you don't know so that when something really complicated gets in, you can refer it up the chain hand that's the key. so again, physician extenders, so-called. i'm an advocate of allowing nurse practitioners to be able to practice independently from physicians without supervision. especially in rural states, that's very, very important. helping people with their medical school bills so they don't -- if you go into primary care, you don't end up with a huge amount of debt and increasing reimbursement in the primary care track, those are all ways that you can get people into primary care. the last is federally qualified health insurance clinics. they are a mold, they are

upgraded. i shouldn't say anything nice about president bush and there's not a lot of nice to say about him, but he did put a lot of money into fqhc's, which is great and they're now not a poor people's clinic any more. middle people can go and get the kind of health care their accustomed to and that's a good thing in the future for expanding primary care and giving opportunities. some person that's asked the question about the medical school and when her kids should be doctorsest answer is absolutely yes. if you like people and like science and we have this reform bill pass, we can do those things and some of these things that i talked about are in fact in the reform bill. >> well, nothing brings along a bunch of doctors than helping them pay back their debt. some way to involve them in the whole thing. from the audience, linda underwood from new york says, i am a candidate for county legislature, she'd like to know, governor dean, how do i frame the health care debate for a local election? >> two ways to frame it.

the first is, who gets to choose, do the american people get to choose what kind of health care they want or so the congress and the insurance companies, are they going to make that choice for you? do you get to choose whether you have a public program or a private program or is the congress going to do that for you? and i think the answer is we'd like to make that choice ourself. the second way to frame it is, the american people have made it very clear what they want. they want the choice, so are you going to vote for the people who pay your salary or are you going to vote for the people who contribute to your campaign.

really make he can lots of money. i said in the book, there's an extension of what's been going on on wall street for the last 15 years. it's free card monty and if there's a public option run by the government, it might not be the most perfectly run thing, although it would be a lot cheaper and more efficient, but it would certainly give them incentive for the insurance companies if they wanted to stay in business, to start becoming more consumer friendly. >> so one of the least talked about issues in this whole

debate and yet, one of the most important at the end of the day, with people are judging how good a bill this is is the whole issue of affordability. and there's a lot of discussion about how to not only make sure that people have health insurance, but how to make sure that it's affordable, that there are subsidies for lower income folks. do you have a view as to how to best make this bill affordable for middle income folks as well as the folks at the very low end on the poverty level. >> well, let me say from the outset, before i answer the question, that when i was writing the book, i promised myself, after i got about halfway through it, the only thing i was really going to focus on intensely was the insurance reform that's essential guaranteed issue in community rating and i mean real community rating, not a band of 100%, where you can charge somebody twice as much if they're sick. kind of like in vermont, the only thing you can charge a sick

patient is 20% above the bottom rate of a healthy patient and the public health care reform. but i wasn't going to criticize or make a lot of public suggestions about anything else in the bill, whether it's tax policy and the reason i'm not going to do that is people in congress do have a hard job. no matter what at the do, tier going to make somebody mad at them in an issue like this, it makes them very uncomfortable and it's easy for me to criticize everything they do, since i don't have to cast a vote. so the thing i want to focus on is the most important thing, the tax policy is important, but it's not as important as the public option. the insurance reform is important, but if you do the public option, the insurance companies will have to reform themselves or they will be out of business and they'll make that choice for themselves. so now i'm going to give a theoretical answer to the question, but not one that i would go to war on because i think the public option is so important, and the stakes are so high for that, it's not worth fighting about much else. and that is, that if you really wants to make this cost efficient, we talked about

ending fee for service medicine, i think that's going to happen over time because i think the doctors themselves -- the primary care people themselves will realize they'll do better if they do it and frankly, they don't want to be told that they've got to see patients every six minutes in order to make a certain quota. they don't want to be told and encouraged to do stuff that's not necessary. they'll do it beings but they don't like it. they don't like to practice the way they're practicing either. it's not just the patients that are upset with what's going oranges it's doctors that are upset with the incentive system we have. it's all backwards and encourages them to practice bad medicine and do too many things to people and it's not a good setup. the public option will encourage them to do reforms. drg's were a way of paying inside a global budget how you could deliver health care and once you go in if you're on medicare to the hospital, they can do a whole lot of stuff to you or not so much stuff and they don't get paid much differently except for -- well, i'm not going to get in to that because it's too complicated, so

i do think there will be cost controls, the public option will probably lead the way on cost control and they'll force the insurance to do more cost controls. right now they do cost controls but they do cost controls that are incredibly consumer unfriendly and they also do cost controls because they want to crank up their bottom line to their quarterly reports look good for wall street and that's the wrong way to do cross controls. if they continue to do that. they'll put themselves out of business if we give the american public a decent option. [applause] >> i was emailed a question from gail, who is in d.c. her sister's leukemia is now in recession, largely due to an experimental medical trial that she was a part of. so how would you say we can keep innovation -- medical innovation as a part of this discussion in health care reform? >> this is a complex answer for

this. which also may not be as popular among some quarters here as it might be. there is a role for the private sector in medicine. everybody likes to beat up on the pharmaceutical industry. the pharmaceutical industry only costs about 10% of the total health care budget. they are incredibly innovative. the drugs that put your sister in remission were invented in some pharmaceutical company's lab. we want to keep the extraordinary innovation of the system. there's also another area where there's a lot of innovation. i've beat up on insurance companies i think with good reason. but there are some insurance companies that are better than others, a lot of -- you know, one of the big issues that i talk about if the book also, one of the problems has to do with the whole model and we're all guilty of this. we need to move from an illness model of medicine to a wellness model of medicine in this country. [applause] >> and the government has done

some things in this regard, and the insurance industry has done some things in this regard. the very best people who have done the most to move this -- and we haven't made much progress but we're making some but the people who have done the most are a, integrated outfits, like kaiser, or large corporations which are self-insured. when you think about that, if everybody could be in that model, we wouldn't solve the cross problem, but we would solve two other problems. we'd solve the community rating problem. if you went to work for a big company like microsoft or ibm or general electric or someplace like that, you get pretty good insurance coverage, no matter in you're 60 years old with a series of illnesses or 20 years old and you've never been sick a day in your life. so you have community rating an guaranteed issue. you can't lose your insurance unless you lose your job, which, you know, is a big problem, and those are exactly the companies

that are doing the best job in terms of encouraging wellness. they do a better job than anybody else in the system. they start to change the incentives. they get rid of all the crap in the cafeteria that you shouldn't be heat and put in healthy stuff. they often give free health club memberships. some of them unfortunately take attendance to see if you go to the health club or not. which we probably could do without. but because they have control over their health care world and they're responsible for the cost. that's one place where people actually do invest in prevention, because they know they're going to pay the price if they don't. it's sort of a mini integrative system if you call 100,000 or 150,000 employees a mini system. so the points i'm trying to peak sheer is, i take a non-ideological approach this this. i think we need a public option and i think we need to allow people under 65 to have what people over 65 have, which is a government run program, if they want, but i don't think we ought to run away from the positive

contributions that the sector has made. one is the pharmaceutical industry for all we beat up on them for their ads, does make extraordinary advances that makes big differences in people's lives and the big corporations that give self-insured programs do make a real effort in my view to switch us. they get that a wellness model is better than an illness model. the problem is how can we in this incredibly fragmented situation switch as a country on the whole, the private insurance is going to be the post likely to change behavior over a wide scale. >> question from the audience from bruce from rochester hills, and he asks, whether you think that president obama should focus so much on bipartisanship on health care when no republicans are going to vote for the legislation anyway. >> well, actually, i think he's doing the right thing, i'll tell

you why. as long as he understands that no republicans are going to vote for this and i think he does. instead of saying the kinds of things i say, which is why he's there and i'm here -- [applause] >> -- but the fact of the matter is he needs to let the republicans people for themselves. i think what he's doing is exactly the right thing. look, the generation that elected him, which would really like to see cooperation. he knows they're not going to get any, but as long as he allows the american people to see the republicans for what they're really advertising, which is no way, no how, jim dement spoke perfectly for the republican party, we're not cooperate willing, because we want to kill health care reform so we can get obama. i don't think the american people are going to buy that i think the american people do want bipartisanship. i think it would be a bad idea for the president of the united states to say we don't want

bipartisanship. the republicans are getting closer every day and chuck grassley in fact said that and he was one of the few who talked about it. i think this tactic of allowing the republicans to eventually show their true colors to the american people, it requires a lot of patience and i think it's very smart, but as long as nobody thinks that bipartisanship is more important than having a good bill, because having a bipartisan bill that doesn't do anything is much worse and much more expensive than having a good bill, even if we don't get a single republican vote. [applause] >> i want to ask you about co-ops, you're from a rural stays, there's some centers saying we should try the co-op option before we have go to a public option. there have people who have

pointed out the problems with that. rural electric co-ops never get enough market share to compete with bigger electric utility companies. what's your reaction on the coops and do you think there's any ground there for, you know, middle ground or whatever? >> first of all, the author of the co-ops is a guy named kent conrad, who is one of my favorite people in the senate. i like him a lot but he's absolutely wrong about this. this is a political crow mice, not a policy compromise and it will not work. now, let me just -- i was on a panel with doug, who was its omb manager for president bush, i think he was -- he was an economic adviser for senator mccain. he does what he's talking about. he's on president bush's council of economic policies. he's very conservative. he thinks the co-ops are a waste. here's why. first of all, they're too small

to do their good. second of all, we've already tried this in this country. blue cross-blue shield used to be a non-profit, public company with members running on the board and they got eaten up and killed and crushed by the private insurance industry. most blue crosses today are in an anthem or something like that, which bailiffs exactly like all the other insurance companies. they stick it to you if you get sick, they won't have you if you look sick, they're not really insurance companies anymore. i don't think we want to help anything that does -- that makes it easier for the insurance industry is probably in this bill, is probably not taking us in the direction we want to go. we want the insurance companies to serve us better and not put more money into what they already do. and the long -- in the long range, the co-ops will fail because they'll be too small and they'll get -- the insurance company is going to use their deep pockets to undercut them and force them to practice at a loss. and eventually they will crush

them just like they crushed blue cross and there will be no public co-ops. the public co-ops are a political compromise to get this bill out of the committee and they will not work. >> hey, mel, could we get the next question from the audience please? and while we're doing that, jill from ohio, she's actually here, a blogger, asked me to ask you, governor dean, how do we keep mental health parity in the discussion, because health care is very broad, but that often gets left by the wayside. [applause] >> and also i have to say, jill millemiller writes like she talks.com. >> it's a great issue that's very close to me. when i was a freshman legislator in 1983, i introduced a bill for

mental health parity in vermont. 14 years later, as governor, i signed the bill. that's how long it took us to get this done, in a relatively progressive state. so it is a real problem. we have a mental health parity bill in this country, it was passed in honor of pete demencchi. as with abortion, this issue will ultimately, i hope, be settled by this panel of people who are going to make up the benefits. at minimum, they will have to obey the law and the law says, that insurance has to include meant at health benefits. the question is, the nitty gritty is how many limits and what are they allowed to do in order to limit the benefits? and my own view is as we get closer and closer to understanding the brain, and understanding that it is an

incredibly complex organ, but it is an organ and functions like every other organ and therefore, can -- these are real illnesses i mean, most mental illness, even though it has names, are syndromes, not illnesses. we don't fully understand what causes the problems, and. pharmaceutical approach is while incredibly successful and they've allowed us to basically move people out of institutions where they were in the 1950's, are mostly hit or miss. we try something, it seems to work, we're not sure what the mechanism is, but it does work and if it doesn't have too many side effects, we let people use it. we're moving closer and closer to a real medical model of mental illness and the closer we move, the less reason there is, at all, if there ever was a reason, to treat mental health differently. so my view onto is the brain is an organ, ought to be treated like every other organ and there ought not to be limits on mental health treatment as a part of the people's insurance program and you can manage, you can

manage that and you can have quality assurance like you do in everything else and make it work, so i think -- i'm hoping that the panel that does the benefits panel will go beyond demencchi and have true mental health parity. >> we have a twitter question from everyday citizen. what are the points to stress about the public option, how do we clearly blog about it, how do we talk about it, how do we keep the message simple on it? >> i'm glad that you asked it. i answered this question once and i'll do it twice and we'll probably do it three ar four more times. it's the most important thing i'll say all day. when we frame this debate, it is not about death panels and social highed medicine. i don't think we want to spend all our time refuting this, because the people who believe this won't list tone what we say anyway. the debate is really clear. it's about two things. the first is, are we going to allow the american people to choose for themselves, this is not a debate about whether the

single payer is better than the public option or better than the private health insurance system. are we going to give the american people a full range of choice. do they deserve that or shall we do that ourselves, us politicians, bureaucrats and insurance companies? that's the first piece. the american people get to choose or the people in washington will choose for you. that's the first part. the second part is related. whose side are you on? the american people have spoken. they want the choice. are you with the insurance companies who want your money, or are you with the people who pay your salary and sent you there. because if you're not with the people who pay your samry, what happens to you may be what happens to most employers -- employees who don't support their employer. [applause] >> we have another question from the awe queens.

-- audience. january is -- asks, do you have any concerns that if this bill passes that the public option will appear less cost effective because it will attract people who are high risk and with greater medical needs? you know, i have heard this too from our members, and the way that i approach it, and i need you to, doctor, prove it, if i can say this, that i ask them, do think tithe their place of worship and if they do, this is very similar, if we all pitch in and we all have to pitch in, that it's going to lower the cost for everyone, but i think that that does come up quite a bit, if we all are part of this public option, is it just going to bring if people that are high risk, and is it not going to cost less? >> this is a very interesting question. my first response is, no, it won't just bring in high risk people. because in the legislation is guaranteed issued and community rating. that is, you will no learning be

able to be turned down, so if you should choose the private option, they have to let you in. however, there will be some increased risk because a -- now, look. there have been groups that work for health insurance companies that say 110ful people are going to sign up for the public. the cbo, they're the only non-partisan group i know of, believe that that 5 or 10 million people will initially sign up for the public option. but whatever of the number is, and i don't believe it's anything close to what the lewen group thinks it is, there are a higher -- disproportionately a higher percentage of people in the uninsured pool that are higher risk. it's not screaming difference, but it is a difference, because one of the reasons some people can't get insurance is because they are higher risk and the insurance companies won't give them insurance. and because they're probably poorer and poorer people have

higher risk, so the uninsured pool, which may be more likely to sign up for the public option, may have a slightly higher risk. and so -- but i think it's not going to make the public option look bad, because the public option is so much better at controlling costs, it will still be cheaper. remember, its overhead rate for medicare is 4%. the overhead rate for a good blue cross, non-profit, there aren't many left, but let's say non-blue cross, non-blue profit is 12% and the overhead for an insurance is 20%. and that means that medicare already has a 16% advantage over private market without doing anything different, so there's a lot of room there for increased risk, and then the last thing i would say is exactly the point that you made. so what? these people are getting health care anyway. it's bad health care because they go to emergency rooms and they don't go and see the doctor with they need to and it ends up being expensive, etc., etc. we're paying for it anyway.

if you have private insurance, your teachers are paying for it and they have private insurance. if you're in a big municipal county or the city of new york or chicago or almost a., and you have any kind of a public hospital system, you're paying for it. if you're in a state -- or a place with no public hospital system, you're still paying for it, because your state is it paying some hospitals uncompensated compare. we're paying these people anyway. so at the end of the day, with risk adjustments, it doesn't make a difference if the -- that money so already in the system and you're not going to pay more because of it, in fact, you'll pay less, because actually the care will be much more rational in a public system which has insurance. the question is what difference does it make? it doesn't make any difference. but the initial answer, it will not happen. it is a legitimate question but it will not happen to any degree that will make a difference. >> i have a question from the audience that i want to expand on just a little bit, which is,

about exempting small business from the employer mandate, which you have spoken positively of. i think the question -- my sense is the questioner is a little skeptical of it. one of the things that i know that we battled on last time, you know, 1993-1994, was that we tried to subsidize small business so much that actually medium-sized and bigger businesses starred to push back. they were the ones initially more in favor of health reform and by the end, they were pushing back because we had subsidized small business so much. which was ironic, because nfib and all the small business groups still hate the bill, so the politics of it didn't work out very well for us, but i'm curious, given that experience, what your feeling is. i mean, -- shouldn't small business have to pay something into the pot? do you think they should be exempted entirely? : for the sector of the

job that creates 80% of all the new jobs. they don't employ 80% of all the americans but they create 80% of new jobs that we need in america. so i would actually make this more small business-friendly than even the blue dogs did. if it was up to me, i'd say anybody with a payroll of less than million dollars or anybody with a number of employees less than 50 is exempt from the mandate. now we're going to take the flier. i see i only have a few minutes left. i'm just -- i have -- since i

wrote about this in the book, i feel some -- i think it's okay for me to say this. i'm not pushing this. but it was part of my platform in 2004. [laughter] >> it's slightly revised. [applause] >> if i were going to do this, i actually argue in the book that we really don't need a mandate and i don't think mandates are going to be very popular. because mandating anything with the american people is never very popular which is why it makes me mad while the republicans think about sticking us with the mandates that we have today. [applause] >> but if i could do this any way i wanted to, this is a flier, i'm not lobbying for this. all i care about is the public option. i would give everybody under 25 or 30 medicaid for free. and i'll tell you why before you think i'm crazy. let me explain this. and i'd use the canadian type system. when you're born you get a card.

i believe everybody should put something in the pot. but here's the problem, first of all, numbers wise the largest number of uninsured people are under 30. second of all, these are not people who you can mandate to do anything. [laughter] >> and third of all, if you give them a voucher they'll sell it on ebay and take the money and by a harley. [laughter] >> fourthly, they never think anything is going to happen to them. and giving free -- i'm generally not for giving anything for free because the most indigent of people. i think it does lead to overuse. i never met a 25-year-old who couldn't wait to go to the doctor. [laughter] >> fifthly, this is the hardest group to sign up for anything. they're in school, they're out of school, they take a break. they work for a small business and own their own business and they work for a company who has their insurance and they lose their insurance.

any parents of teenagers it is insane to keep them insane. [applause] >> if it were up to me i wouldn't have an mandate. i would insure anybody under free. we did it in vermont and we didn't have to pay for the tax and the feds pay for a lot of it because we use medicaid. then for the over 55s, this is what i proposed. i'd let them buy into medicare i think the public option actually advances that. i'd let anybody buy into medicare. i personal would not create a separate public option. you'd raise the rates. you got to raise the rates for primary physicians. medicare is not going to work anymore. it just isn't. but you can also do a whole lot of lost controls and i think the president has suggested that and there's a lot of folks -- that's actually in the bill. and then i would not do away with employer-based insurance. although i argue that we should in the book.

employer-based insurance is bad for the economy because employer-based insurance goes up 2 1/2 times the rate of insurance and makes our businesses uncompetitive but people like it. for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, they like it because it's what they have because they get very good benefits even though they often have to pay more and more and don't make any money because they can never get a raise. i think employers like it because some of these ceos are amazing if you to make $30 million if you do the same thing for 40 years in a row you'll get a different result. i don't quite get that but they do. america is a conservative company with a small c in this way. they all say they want change but they don't want quite as much as they think they want when they get in the ballot box. and so you can't change the system and push everybody in a certain way they don't want to go. so in 2004 i said, you know, let's keep the employer-based system is because i think you

need to give the american people the choice and if that's what they want, let them choose that. that's why obama's bill -- i'm such a fan of obama's bill. that's howard dean's version of healthcare, 2004. insure everybody under 30. let everybody else buy into medicare or keep their private insurance if you want. now here's what i like obama's bill. it gets back to choice. we have failed to insure people in this country not just because the insurance companies spend a lot of money with harry and lewis who have endorsed health insurance now. we failed because we tried to make the american people do something they didn't want to do. 80% of the people in this country have insurance. of those, 80% have good insurance so 65% roughly have good insurance and the rest of them are upset. and some of the 65 are upset 'cause it cost too much. so instead of trying to force everybody out of the system that we already have 'cause 65 always beats 35 in a democracy, we ought to let people choose on

their own. let them understand what the pros and cons of both systems are by experiencing those systems and letting them make the choice. i've always said this -- the president has put forward, i think, the best healthcare bill i've seen and i've been doing this stuff since kennedy and javits were trying to do it for jimmy carter. the reason why it's so good because is allows the pace of reform to go at the pace that the american people are comfortable with because they are the ones reforming the system which is why the public option is so important. let them try something different. they will try something different and guess what? they'll tell their neighbors, guess what, this works. but you can't force them out of it because the bill will fail in congress. [applause] >> so we're getting down to the end and tonya and i wanted to ask you about action steps. you've talked a lot about it in your speeches, in your book. you're working with dfa and you're working with all types of

good groups. what can the folks out here in the audience do to make health reform happen this year. >> more than most people because of what you do and why you're here. first of all, i would be remiss since i am a paid political consultant at democracy for america. [applause] >> not promoting their website called stand with dr. dean.com. you ought to go on it. [laughter] >> you ought to -- there's a whole bunch of action steps that you can take. and i, of course, will take off my paid consultant hat since i'm a free agent and can do anything i want. i would also go to bill press' website. they have a list of democratic senators that don't yet support our bill. the president's bill. i would remind people that the democrats that you speak with that we're supporting the president's plan. we're supporting the -- the democratic president's plan that we all hope that we would have, right? the democratic president's plan, that's what we support. what are you supporting? [applause]

>> i would email everybody on bill press' list or the dfa -- the stand with dr. dean list multiple times. and get 170,000 of your closest friends to do same. i would not call them or send them letters because they will not pay attention to you. emailing is fine. i would, however, make sure that you're contacting everybody you know in their states and the states that are listed on the dfa website and bill press' website. i would make sure that those folks get contacted by people from their state. and if you don't personally know anybody in those states, you'll find that you do, in fact. i'm just going to use this as an example. suppose you're a member of the sierra club. that's how i got your name but i'm really calling you about healthcare reform. would you be willing to make a

call as an individual or tell your friends as on individual? that's how it's going to work. you know, a lot of people talk about max bachus. max bachus pays attention to what people say in montana. he does. there's been single payors in his state. and this republican force is going to die. when grassley said the other day he pretty much admitted this was a farce, chairman baucus knows he has to get a bill out of this committee and if he only has democrats to work with, guess what the majority democrats on his committee favor a political option. if he's going to get a bill out of this committee with zero republican boats it's going to have to have a public option in the senate finance bill; otherwise, there isn't going to be a bill, right? and he knows there has to be a bill. so it matters what you say. it's one of the reasons i've been very careful not to criticize individual senators. i don't mind talking about their views because at the end, i think we're going to get almost

every democratic senator. almost every one because there's not going to be any republicans. they're not going to be interested in forming the bill and, therefore, the democratic caucus is going to have a huge influence in this and the majority of the people in the democratic caucus want a public option. they want real reform. so make sure that folks are going to the hearings in these states with senators who haven't decided yet and make sure that they understand that you believe this is a choice between the insurance companies and the people who elected them and do the work 'cause you're the activists, right? it's one thing for them to say well, the activists don't matter. the activists are who knock on the doors all the time. they matter a lot. you can get all the television advertising you want. we know barack obama wouldn't be in the white house unless people have gone out and knocked on doors and gotten on the internet and organized, right? [applause] >> so that's why this makes a big difference. i think we can be polite but i think we have to be firm. we have already made our compromise and there will be no more compromises in this bill, and we expect the democratic

party to support the democratic president and the democratic people who elected these people for the united states senate and the united states house of representatives. they are there to do the people's business and the people do not necessarily include the insurance industry. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> and to follow up, though, again -- i thought we should quit while i was ahead on that. [laughter] >> well, we can actually take action here at the conference. organizing for america is doing phone banks at three points today. i think their sign's posted. i heard there might be a rally outside the westin today i believe at noon. again, keep in mind out for posters.

governor dean, will you make five phone calls with me. it only will take five minutes. >> i don't even what's on my schedule. i'm scheduled to canvass with sisu tomorrow in pittsburgh. [applause] >> well, i really wouldn't be a good organizer if i didn't mention there are 2,000 people here. we all made phone calls that's 10,000 phone calls. so a lot of work. that's a lot of that retail politics and talking to people one-to-one. thank you so much for coming. >> thank you. it's my pleasure. thanks very much. thanks, mike. [applause] [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you. [applause]

>> good morning. my name is chris shannon. two years ago we lost the dear -- >> we're going to leave this conference at this point to go live to the funeral service for eunice kennedy shriver. she died on tuesday after being hospitalized recently near her home on cape cod. she was 88. eunice, the sister of president john f. kennedy, best known for founding the special olympics. this is live coverage on c-span2. >> in every one of us to carry it through. i have some work to do and so do you and now as i close, you are here to voice of miss eunice kennedy shriver in her own words. god bless. >> you are the stars and the world is watching you. by your presence you send a message to every village, every

city, every nation. a message of hope, a message of victory. the right to play on any playing field, you have earned it. the right to study in any school, you have earned it. the right to hold a job, you have earned it. the right to be anyone's neighbor, you have earned it. [applause] >> now let us rise and pray together in eunice that she may rest in peace and that her life will continue to inspire us as a living legacy of love. first in silence we bow our heads in prayer.

>> and if you wish, i invite you to raise your hands with me together. o almighty god our father we firmly believe that your son, christ jesus has died and has risen to new life. we prey for our sister, eunice, who has died in christ, raise her up on the last day to share the glory of the risen lord now and always. for we ask this in his name, he lives with you in the holy spirit, one god, forever and ever. >> amen. >> and now let us be seated for the reading of god's word.

>> a reading from the book of the prophet isaiah. this rather is the fasting that i wish, releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yolk, setting free the oppressed, breaking every i don't care. sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless. clothing the naked when you see them and not turning your back on your own. then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your

wound shall quickly be healed. your vindication shall go before you and the glory of the lord shall be your rear guard. then you should call and the lord will answer. you shall cry for help and he will say, here i am. if you remove,(ñ from your mist oppression, false accusation and malicious speech, if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday. then the lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. he will renew your strength and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails, the word of the lord. >> peace be to god.

>> sing to the lord a new song for he has done marvelous things. his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. the lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. he has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of

israel. all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our god. >> shout for joy to the lord all the earth, jump in jubilant song with music and with the sound of singing with trumpets and the -- >> let the sea resound and everything in it. the world and all who live in it. let the rivers clap their hands. let the mountains sing together for joy. let them sing before the lord. for he comes to judge the earth. he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

>> a reading from the first letter of paul to the corinthians. behold, i tell you a mystery. we will not all sleep but we will all be changed in a flash, in a blink of an eye at the lat trumpet. for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised impa impairishable and we will be changed for it must clothe itself with the unperishable. with the perishable has been clothed with the imperfectishable and the mortal with immortality, then the

saying that is written will come true. death has been swallowed up in victory. where o death is your victory. where o death is your sting. the sting of death is sin. and the power of sin is the law. but thanks be to god. he gives us victory through the lord jesus christ. the word of the lord. >> thanks be to god. ♪

♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ the right hand of god raise me up ♪ ♪ the hand of the lord has triumphed ♪ ♪ i shall never die ♪ i shall leave telling god's

deeds ♪ ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah >> my sisters and my brothers the lord be with you. >> and also with you. >> our reading is from the holy gospel according to st. luke. >> the lord be to you oh, lord. >> mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste. to a town of judah where she entered the house of zachariah and greeted elizabeth. when elizabeth heard mary's greeting the infant leapt in her wound and elizabeth filled with the holy spirit cried out in a loud invoice and said, blessed are you among women. blessed is the fruit of your wound.

and how does this happen to me? that the mother of my lord should come to me? for at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leapt for gyre. -- joy. blessed are you who believed. that what has been spoken to you by the lord would be fulfilled. and mary said, my soul proclaims the greatness of the lord. my spirit rejoices in god my savior for he has looked upon his lowly servant. from this day all generations shall call me blessed. the almighty has done great things for me. holy is his name. he has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. he has shown the strength of his arm and has scattered the proud

in their conceit. he cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty. he has come to the house of servant of israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to abraham and to his children forever. mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. the gospel of the lord. >> praise to you, jesus christ.

[inaudible] >> framed photographs, snapshots, collages of faces and events, black and white and in color.u they line the walls. they line the walls filled with pictures of popes and presidents, of dignitaries and of athletes of a special sort. but mostly, and especially, pictures of family. children and grandchildren, the children and grandchildren, the young,f and the dead. that's what i noticed most each

time i visited the shriver home. the place of sergeant and eunice. a dwelling filled with a visual archive, an archive of lives well lived in the service of god, of family, of country, of human kind, of the intellectually disabled, camp shriver, where everyone is welcomed. some of these images, dear sisters and brothers -- some of these images we actually hold in our hands this morning. these photographs are the memories that bless and encourage us that are given to us in this program that we have been given in the entrance of the church. they celebrate these photos, the

indomantable life of eunice kennedy shriver who has died and who now reposes in the sure and ñchrist's promise. life lived in abundance, the resurrection of the dead. for behold the trumpet shall sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and this mortal body will be clothed with immorality. o death, where is your stain? o death, where is your victory? and thanks be to god who has given us this victory in christ jesus our lord. but this retrospective of images that we hold in these programs, in this scrapbook of sorts, this

scrapbook that we hold in our hands is but an awakening of a vast array of images and memories which we cherish inxfxr hearts. so many memories which filled this church, which filled our wake at our lady of victory church last evening. and well into the night of the irish festival at eunice's home. memories in all of us who share the grief of death and nevertheless share together the bright promise of immorality. these memories of eunice have weld up all over the world during these past few days, in our newscasts, our websites, our emails and text messages, even in twitter. on front pages and editorial pages as we mourn the death of

such a noble woman, a valiant and strong woman. the earth rejoices with us and weeps. eunice, the very name originating in the greek language bespeaks her legacy. it means the good victory. eunice, the gold medal winner, the wife, the mother, the grandmother, the torch-bearer. in all ways the bringer of a good victory who has gone before us now in the victory of life marked with a sign of faith in water of the holy spirit baptist advertised her lord and savior

the immortal diamond. my dear friends among all these wonderful memories that fill this room, there are two particular memory snapshots in my heart which have come in to a clearer focus for me over the past several days. the first, picture it. the wedding mass of maria and arnold, 23 years ago. we were all must younger then. 23 years ago right here in this church, many of us were here, and i was leading the congregational singing and eunice and sarge were seated right there right there in the front row. as the ceremony progressed, i kept noticing eunice trying to catch my eye, looking at me with

fire in her eyes. and when our glances met, she began to move her lips and wave her arms saying inaudibly, keep it moving. [laughter] >> keep it moving. and several times this several times this happened. keep it moving. and when you think of these words post mortem they could be a motto for her life, keep it moving with passion and flare, with excellence and with her unique competitive edge. the competitive edge that engaged her in a life of

outdoing others in service. for she knew intuitively the message of the prophet isaiah which we heard spoken, sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked when you see them and not turning your back on your own kind. this is the worship that i desire, says the lord. and she kept this prophesy moving. in the service of her family. and the service of the unborn. and the service of a dream, a special dream, which grabs the imaginations of now over 3 million special athletes with whom she had shared her bread and the flame of human dignity, recognition and honor and respect like the prophet isaiah,

she kept us moving. and kept moving us to see that life is only lived well when we live no longer for ourselves, dear friends. when we live no longer for ourselves but for others. demonstrating that this ancient prophesy has been fulfilled in our midst in this woman of good victory. in this woman in whom the light broke forth like the dawn and in whom the glory of the lord was revealed for all of us to see. she kept this godly covenant moving in urgency, celebrating grace and joy.

never wanting to waste a minute with a god spark in her thin body that can motivate us to do the same. keep on moving embodying us into chaos, which can become a caldron of creativity if entered with per &ce and the unrelenting urge to have engineers and -- to walk humbly with god and she did walk with god, didn't she? keep us moving then. keep us moving. the second photo memory that has engaged my heart takes me back

about ten years to chicago. picture it, eunice was to offer an acceptance speech for the peacemaker award given by the catholic theological union where i teach. i promised that if she would accept this honor, i would assist her in putting together her thoughts. so we worked for hours in her hotel room, writing, rewriting, getting almost nowhere and if you ever worked with eunice, you know that it could go on for a long time. [laughter] >> like with her family, even in preparing these funeral events. [laughter] >> that's not scripted, by the way. [laughter] >> we were writing and rewriting, getting almost nowhere and at one point in this process, eunice said to me, get

this, enough words! enough thinking! stop! let us be silent and let us pray. then let us see what happens. now, i was stunned by her words. this was not at all the eunice that told me once at maria and arnold's wedding to keep it moving. stop, let us be silent and pray and so we sat silently for a few minutes that seemed like a few hours, a quiet silence and afterwards our thoughts, our thoughts sparkled. stop, let us be silent and pray.

for that was her secret, wasn't it? as anthony, her son, reminded us at the wake service last night. that was her secret. a deep communion with god in prayer, daily mass, the rosary, her devotion book, right here in this church, in this place, the gate of paradise -- at this eucharistic thought that moved her in her movement right here, stop, all of us at the words of eunice and let us pray and let us see what happens when god takes over. stop in the frenetic world of

the high-paced, thought-tormented culture in which we live. to stop in the eternal now of god. in this moment, for a moment, and there to find the strength of mind and action to sparkle like eunice, a woman who walked with god, who lived and moved and had her being in god, a woman who even this morning around her coffin invites us all here to do the same. even now to stop and to be in this moment and to pray for her. and to pray with her and to pray to her in a communion of saints

and with mary, the mother of jesus, whose death and whose assumption we will celebrate tomorrow. mary, for whom eunice had a unique affection, a unique relationship of prayer and the almost mystical way in which she spoke with the mother of god. mary, who inspired eunice to become like christ and christ who inspired eunice to become like mary. in fact, her children tell me that her devotion was so great that she had 38 images of mary in her bedroom. for we can hear in the words spoken by mary in the gospel this morning, words that were lived by eunice in her action and in her unpretentiousness, in action which is love.

for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. he has shown strength with his arm and he has scattered the proud and their conceit. he has put down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted those of low degree. he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he sent empty away. he has helped his servant, israel, in remembrance of his mercy. as he spoke to our ancestors, to abraham and to his posterity forever. stop! let us be silent. enough thinking. enough anxiety. let us pray, remembering that

all things are possible in the one who strengthens us. now! now! now! and in the power of this presence after we have mastered the winds and the waves and the tides and the gravity. and the power of god given to us now, we shall harness the energies of love. then for the second time in the history of the world we shall have discovered fire. stop us, eunice. help us to pray. eunice, let us sparkle with the radiance of god and the fire of love.

finally, in the long memory of the judeo-christian there are millions that can be pulled from the archives in the times of death, grief and fear. they can bring us comfort so here's one more from another memory scrapbook. picture it, a classroom of students precocious little students like eunice's 19 grandchildren, the youngest she was able to hold on her lap, rosemary. precocious like these wonderful children whom you will hear from in just a moment as they pray with us. the teacher reads a passage to her students from genesis. it's about enoch, a small character in the book of genesis

and the passage simply says this. enoch walked with god and then enoch was no more. so the question has been for centuries, whatever happened to enoch? like where's waldo? enoch walked with god and then enoch was no more so the teacher asked the students, what happened to enoch and there was a great silence in the classroom until finally one of the students raised her hand and she said, i know, teacher. enoch and god were good friends. they used to walk together and talk together about a lot of things. and gradually as the life of enoch got older, they took longer walks together until finally one day, they took such a long walk that god said to enoch, we're closer to my house now than we are to yours. enoch, why don't you come and stay with me.

i have a picture of that happening to eunice just a few days ago. because on the move as she was, she nevertheless walked with god and she had long talks no doubt about her own children, about the special olympic athletes. about dreams and visions that we are the legacy to continue. she walked with god having long walks until this past week, this past tuesday, august 11th, the feast of st. clair, the friend of st. francis, the patron saint of television, eunice and god took a very long walk that night and god said to eunice, you are closer to my house now than to

your house by the sea. well done, good and faithful servant. enter into the inheritance prepared for you for the beginning of time. and so we gather believing that eunice is with god now. and that we no longer can do for her some things. we believe that god is doing them for her because you, her family, you can no longer touch her. you can no longer kiss her. you no longer can eat with her, sail with her, speak with her, laugh with her, embrace her, but we believe that eunice is with god and we believe that god is doing that and more. for god embraces this woman, touches her, kisses her, eats with her and perhaps even poses for a photo with her for the

heavenly portrait gallery. until we meet again, in the mansions prepared by christ for those who love and serve in the extreme delight of self-emptying compassion. for the least of the brothers and sisters. filled with living affection for each other. her legacy to us. and so dear eunice, if you can hear us, and i believe you can in some mysterious way -- if you can hear us, then receive our great gratitude for a stunning performance of life. and share in this eucharist with us this morning and share from

the heavenly banquet table the christ whose love you embodied as we give thanks to god for you through christ with him and in him. and, eunice, pray for us that we may continue to move and find our power in the now. continue to live our lives as splendidly as you lived yours. eternal rest grant unto her, o lord and may the perpetual light shine upon her. may she rest in peace and may her soul and the souls of the faithfully departed to the mercy of god, rest in peace. eunice, may your memory be eternal and your grave be renowned. amen.

>> and so now as we rise, eunice's grandchildren now come forward to lead us in prayer. let the response to these intercessions be o god of love hear our prayer. we say together. o god of love, hear our prayer. >> thank you for being such an inspirational spirited and wonderful grandma. help us carry on your

determination, passion for sports and competition and your dedication to making sure everyone got a chance to succeed. we love you grandma. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> grandma, thank you for watching mermaids with me, having magical tea parties, our many competitive sailing adventures and always teaching me boys can -- that girls can do anything that boys can do. we pray to the lord. >> oh, god of love hear our prayer. >> for all those who doubt themselves or believe in liminetations encourage my grandmother obtained and instill in us to consistently strive to do their best and be their best. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love hear our prayer. >> grandma, thanks for everything. thank you for encouraging me at all my sport games and for

teaching me the importance of community service. for this we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> grandma, thank you for teaching me to care for others and myself. just like you cared for all of us. i love you so much. that we all continue to care for others we pray to the lord. >> oh, god of love, hear our prayer. >> thank you, grandma, for whisking away for your run of secret games of secret houses of leprechauns and doll houses for strawberry milk shakes and floral bathing caps, for every time i walked into the room, looking up and saying, ah, rosie is here. for pushing me into the pool and yelling kick, kick, kick. [laughter] >> we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer.

>> thank you, grandma, for making us take it upon ourselves to always bring an athlete into the pool with us, to always throw the ball to the youngest kid on the football field and to always get a girl cousin to come sailing with us boys. you preached inclusion of all people through your words and your example and taught us all to take on the problems we see in the world with the same fiery, loving passion that you did every day. for these gifts and lessons, we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> thank you, grandma for helping me to overcome my fear of the ocean and sailing. only you can make me spend the rest of my life on the santa maria. may we all grow to overcome our fears. we pray to the lord. >> oh, god of love hear our prayer. >> grandma, when we were in church or saying the rosary when

you could not speak anything else, i too wanted to be a woman of great faith. thank you, grandma, we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> grandma, i love and miss you so much. thank you for teaching me to love and care for my sisters and brothers the way you did with rosemary. we pray to the lord. >> oh, god of love, hear our prayer. >> for all the people that are lost and lonely, that they know they should not be afraid and they should follow their heart just like my grandmother did. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> for all people to care for our mother earth so that we can always enjoy oceans full of life, beautiful peaches and many colorful flowers especially the rose. things that grandmother loved so much. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love hear our prayer.

>> for the young and the old people who have yet to discover their passion in life, may grandma's example of courage, faith and commitment guide them to find their calling. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> your commitment, dedication and passion for your sister rosemary taught us all the importance of family. but most of all that people with special needs inspire us to make the world a better place. may we always remember this lesson. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> grandma showed us all the importance of family, faith and friendships. may we continue to remember her example and live in her spirit. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love hear our prayer. >> grandma, i will miss you so much and thank you for teaching

me to help people in need. may we always help those in need. we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> that my grandma has fun with the angels in heaven. >> we pray to the lord. >> o god of love, hear our prayer. >> and now placing these prayers and eunice into the hands of mary, the mother of jesus and our mother, we say together, hail mary, full of grace the lord is with thee, blessed among thou of woman and blessed is the fruit of woman of jesus. holy mary mother of god pray of sinners now at the hour of our death, amen. our gracious god hear the prayers we raise and make us the living response that you give to the needs of this world. grant these things through

christ our lord. >> amen. >> and now as the gifts are brought forward to the altar, let the congregation please be seated. ♪ amazing grace, how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ that saved wretch like me ♪ i once was lost ♪ but now i'm found ♪ was blind but now i see

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ i once was lost ♪ but now i'm found ♪ was mind but now i see. ..

♪

♪ >> let us pray. that the sacrifices acceptable to god our loving father. >> o gracious god, received the gift we offer in thanksgiving there is a light for our sister, eunice. may christ receiver in his loving arms where she will receive christ as her love and savior. grant this through christ our lord.

>> amen. >> the lord be with you. >> and also with you. >> lift up your heart's. >> we lift them up to the lord. >> let us give thanks to the lord and god. >> it is right to give him thanks and praise. >> we give thanks through jesus christ our lord you. the sadness of death gives way to immortality.

and so with all the choirs of the angels in heaven, we proclaim your glory as we sing. >> holy, holy, holy lord. heaven and earth are full of your glory, osama and the highest. blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord. house o♪

>> bother father, you are holy in the light. you are holy indeed. now let your spirit become upon you. so as it may become for us the body and spirit of jesus christ. he gave you thanks and praise. he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples and said, take

this all of you and eat it. this is my body which will be given up for you. and then when supper was ended, he took the cup. again, he gave you thanks and praise. gave the cup to his disciples and said, take this all of you and drink from it. this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be

forgiven, do this in memory of me. >> let us proclaim the mystery of faith. >> christ has died, christ has risen, christ will come again. christ has died, christ has risen, christ will come again. >> in the memory and death of resurrection we offer to your father, life giving bread here we thank you for counting is worthy to be here in your presence. may all of us who share in the body and blood of christ, may we

draw together in unity by the holy spirit. >> lord, remember your church throughout the world. george, our bishop and all the clergy. in baptism, she died in christ. remember as well all of us who live in christ. >> bring them and eunice and all of the departed, were the two share in eternal life, and all

the saints have done your world throughout the ages. we pray in glory through your son, jesus christ. >> through him, with them him, in him, in the unity of the holy spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty father, for ever and ever. ♪ amen. a man. ♪ amen. >> as roman catholics, we

believe in the state, and now in this holy communion table, we share the living body of blood with christ with one another. for those of you who are not able to receive holy communion, we invite you to come down the center aisle, and down the side aisles on either side of the aisle where you will receive the body and the blood of christ. at this occasion, we invite you all forward. now, as we prepare for communion, let us pray, slowly and on purpose from our hearts. we dare to say, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be our

name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. give us this day, our daily bread. and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. >> from every evil, grant us peace in our day. in your mercy, keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior, jesus christ, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever. >> the lord jesus christ, you said to your disciples, i give you peace my peace i give you. grant has always the peace and unity of your kingdom for ever

and ever. >> amon. >> and may the peace of the lord and the affection of the memories of this good women be with you always. >> and also with you. >> and now let us give each other a sign of peace. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ >> truly blessed are those who are called to his supper. >> lord, i am not worth would receive you but only say the word and i shall be healed.

>> let us join together from our

music issue as we sing on eagle's wing. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ musi

♪ ♪ ♪ using ♪

♪ ♪ >> as we sing here i am, lord. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ i have borne my people's pain. i have looked for love of them, they turn away. ♪ i will break their hearts of stone.

give them heart for love alone. i will speak my word to them, whom shall i send? ♪ here i am lord, is it i lord? i have heard you calling in the night. ♪ i will go lord, if you lead me. i will hold your people in my heart. ♪ i., the lord of wind and

flame, i will tend the poor and lame. i will set a feast for them, my hand will save. ♪ finest bread i will provide, kill their hearts be satisfied. i will give my life to them, whom shall i send? here i am lord, is it i lord? i have heard you calling in the night. i will go lord, if you lead me.

i will hold your people in my heart. ♪

>> use i♪ ♪ use i ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> let us pray. oh, lord god, your son, jesus christ, gave up his body and blood to guide us to your

kingdom. to day, our sister eunice, who shed daily in this eucharist, prepared for all to move on. grant this through christ, our lord. >> amen. >> let us be seated. >> i am supposed to be joined here by my brothers. vice-president joe biden, gov. patrick, we want to thank all of you for coming here today to

honor and celebrate the life of our mother. over the past few days, our mother has been called everything from a st. to a pioneer to a trailblazer to a true original to a civil-rights advocate of legendary proportions to a force of human nature who more than held her own in a family of highly competitive, high achieving men. she was indeed a transforming figure. to her five children, mark, tinny and anthony and all of us, she was simply mommy. she was our hero, competitive but also empathetic, restless and patient, curious and careful, she liked to hang with

the guys, but all her heroes except for her brother, jack, were women. she had a husband who was totally devoted to her in every sense of that word. a man who marvel that everything she said, and everything she did. he didn't mind if her hair was a mess if she walked round any wet bathing suit, if she beat him at tennis or challenged his ideas. he let her rip and he let her work and he loved everything about her. five kids adore her androar and about her. five kids adore her and loved to be with her and you have the ultimate role model. it was an honor for us to the her children and especially for me to be her daughter. that is not to say it was always easy, because she wasn't exactly like any other mother you have a

racine. as a young girl like to know how to process her appearance much of the time because most of the mothers were neatly done. she came to pick us up at school in her blue lincoln convertible, her hair flying in the wind, usually pencil or pen is in it. the car would be filled with all of these boys and their friends and their animals, she had on a cashmere sweater with a note pinned to it to remind her what she needed to do when she got home, and more often than not this letter will be covering a bathing suit so she could lose no time jumping into the pool to be as a water polo game. i would try to run for cover. when she wasn't trying to beat each of us in a game of tennis or on the football field, you could usually find her at mass with our father, praying or

working, and i mean really working. she was, as you all know, determined to change the world for people with intellectual disabilities and she did. you had no choice but to join her in her mission. which took all of us from our backyard to every state in this nation, and just as many countries around world. our mother never rested, she never stopped, she was momentum on wheels. she was focused, relentless, and she got the job done. to day, when i close my mind, and i am sure this goes for my brothers as well, and we think about our mother, we see her cheering us all on through everything she did. and everything we did. i see her encouraging me to beat my brother's in tennis. i see her moving my books from the back of the folks or to the front of the bookstore and when the manager would call and tell her she couldn't do that, she would tell him to go right back

behind the desk where he belonged and the quiet. i hear her when i would call her on the ground when she sent me to africa to live with a family in the medina section of africa and i called to complain there was no running water, no toilet, and i was sleeping with 5 men, she said i don't want to hear one more year out of you, do your job and don't come back into you are finished. i heard that a lot. i see her urging my father to take me everywhere with my friend is including writing to a baltimore orioles locker room. i see her as i am sure my brothers do, laughing, praying, sailing, loving each everyone of us equally. and while she tells albany that she was raising me in a man's world, she let me know there was no doubt in her mind that i could compete, that i should compete and that i could win. she was indeed a trailblazer,

she showed up in her life as her self. and that takes courage. she took adversity and turned it into an sandage, inspired by the rejection she saw many women face, especially some her sister and her mother and other mothers with special children. that is what i call maternal feminism. she believes one hundred% in the power and gift of women to change the language, the tempo and the character of this world. her heroes were the virgin mary, mother teresa, her own mother, her sister, rose mary, all of whom in her eyes have already done that, and she would always challenge each of us to do the same. you will, she said, you must, you can. if she were here today and speaking here and i think we all wish she were, she would pound

this podium, she would quote de jardins and ask what you have done to change the world. she would ask each and everyone of you to join her in making this world a more tolerant, just and compassionate place. she would end by talking about her own family, how grateful she was to her parents and her brothers and sisters, all of whom she absolutely adored. she would tell you how proud she was of sargent and how proud she was of each of us and she would tell you about each thing each of us did and she would ask you for money for all four of my brothers who got non-profits. they would probably ask you later. on behalf of them, best buddies

in the special olympics, and she would remind all of you that you hadn't done enough and there was much more to do, and you would leave this church simply and of her. she wasin of her. she was indeed a towering figure. she was a woman who did everything women aspire to. she had a great husband, a great family, a deep faith in god and she combine that with being a fearless warrior for the voiceless. i am so thrilled, as i know my brothers are, that people all over the world are hearing about her as this week in editorials and on television crew because they need to tell stories about individuals like mommy. i am glad young women are hearing about her because she

was a woman who didn't choose, women are often told you have to choose to be this or that, this kind of woman, you have to dress this way, talk this way, have one opinion. she wasn't like that. she didn't shoes. she let all the different parts of her go out and that is what made her unique. she didn't allow herself to be tamed or contained. she achieved herself, her true authentic self. the same woman who made grown men quake in their boots when she set foot on capitol hill, was the very same woman who spent quality time with each and every one of us, making us feel love, making us believe in ourselves. she spent quality time with each of those grandchildren use on this altar, building sandcastles, looking for leprechauns, looking for mermaids. she didn't choose between being strong and soft, complex or simple. as a her story goes out this

week, i believe she will become a new torchbearer for women of our times, sending a new message. you don't have to be a certain way, you don't have to fit a stereotyped. over your life you can have a full, complete, spiritual life, a life that is about others and a life that is about family. her story teaches us that women are complex and they can live out every single aspect of that complexity. in closing, let me say that in the last few years of her life, i found mommy to be almost more i inspiring thawe inspiring tha years. she never complained, she never ask for pity. she fought and she fought until her last breath. over the years, all of us learned some much from her by

listening to her, by watching her, and this past year, i learned from her as well. as she softened, she gave me permission to do the same. as she sat still, she taught me how important that is to one's life. she taught us that real strength can also be found in real vulnerability, and that it is okay, even important, lean on those who love you. if you had told me a few years ago that at the end of my mother's life, she and i would sit in a room and just be, i would have said you are crazy. if you had told me that at the age of 52, i would finally get up the nerve to crawl into bed with my mother, hold her and tell her that i love her, i would have said you were nuts. if you had told me that mommy and i would write poetry together, i would know for sure is that you had lost your mind. all those things really happen

as she learned to let go. at the end of her life, she was strong and vulnerable. she did it all, she lived it all and she loves us all. i think it is impossible for each of us to think about our life without mommy. is interesting, as we talk amongst us the last couple days, each of us felt like an only child, each of us felt as though our mother was our best friend, each of us talked to her every day and sometimes more than once. and of course, as i said to my mother, which i often did, i can't go on without you, i don't know how to live without you, she would say you are fine, i raise you well, get out of here, i don't want to hear one more y yip, your brothers will be nice to you.

and so i will, we all will get up and get going. but i wanted to leave you with this little poem that my mother and i wrote together in a hospital room in boston. i read it to her several times and she liked a lot. it has no name but i thought she'd like me to share it with you. it goes like this. thank you, mommy, for giving me the breath of life. thank you for giving me a push over and over again, thank you for doing your best. here we are, you and me. now it is you needing the breath of life. now it is you need in the plush, you did it for me, let me do it for you. your love has brought me to my knees. i cannot breathe without you. i cannot think without you. i am lost without you.

here we are, you and me, the clouds are gone, the sky is clear, you are the star in my sky, you are the music in my heart. do you hear it? listen. listen. you are the trumpet of my life. [applause]

>> in the spirit of what we have just scared -- shared, let us sing on the sheets that have been passed on to you, oh wins we have and is filled with the universe, and will be led by this wonderful irish group. ♪ ♪ we are all walking in the footsteps ♪ of the lord ♪ and we are united ♪ and a new estimation ♪ the saints are marching in ♪ when the saints go marching

in ♪ i want to read a number ♪ when the saints go marching in. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the saints go marching in the back it is hard to be in

the summer ♪ when the saints go marching in ♪ ♪ when the saints go marching in ♪ when the saints go marching in ♪ when the saints go marching in. ♪

♪ ♪ [applause]

>> let us pray.

with all the saints who have marched in before us and will go ahead of us, we trust in god and we have prayed together now for our sister, eunice, and we come to the final farewell in this church, there's always sadness in parting, but we take comfort in the hope that one day we shall see eunice again and enjoy her friendship, and all those congregations will disburse to the four corners of the earth, the mercy of god will accompany us and let us pray that the inspiration of eunice will do the same until we all meet at last in the heavenly kingdom. therefore, we wait in joyful hope as our final sign of affection, eunice's coffin will

be incensed. this is a sign of our prior rising to the heavens. it is the sign of hope and promise that one day we too will rise with eunice on the last day. we sing the words from the gospel, jesus, remember her. when you come into your kingdom. jesus, remember her when you come into your kingdom. let us sing that together. ♪ jesus remember her when you

come into your kingdom ♪ jesus remember her when you come into your kingdom ♪ jesus remember her ♪ when you come into your kingdom ♪ jesus ♪ remember her ♪ when you come into your kingdom ♪ jesus ♪ remember her ♪ when you come into your kingdom ♪ jesus ♪ remember her ♪ when you come into your kingdom ♪ jesus ♪ remember her ♪ when you come into your

kingdom ♪ jesus ♪ remember her ♪ when you come into your kingdom ♪ ♪ >> into your hands, we commend our sister, eunice in the sure and certain hope that together with all who have died in christ, she will rise with him on the last day. we give you thanks for the blessings which you bestowed on eunice in this life. they are signed to us with your goodness and of our shepherds and saints in christ.

merciful lord, turned toward us and listen to our prayers. open the gates of paradise to your servant and help us remain to comfort one another with assurances of faith until we all meet in christ and are with you and with our sister forever. we ask this through christ, our lord. >> a man. >> in peace, let us take our sister. ♪ glory glory hallelujah

♪ glory glory hallelujah ♪ glory glory hallelujah ♪ his truth is marching on ♪ i have seen the coming of the lord ♪ he is handing out is traveling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ♪ he has closed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift

sword ♪ his truth is marching on nutmeg glory glory hallelujah ♪ glory glory hallelujah ♪ glory glory hallelujah ♪ his truth is marching on ♪ he has sounded for the trumpet that shall never call retreat ♪ he is shifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat ♪ oh be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet! our god is marching on ♪ glory glory hallelujah ♪ [ whistleblowing] [bell

tolling] ♪